Thursday, November 24, 2005
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Our prejudices are born with us and they are all rooted in the illusion that we are the center of the universe, our god is the only true god, and our country is always right. We know of course that countries don’t think, politicians do, and politicians are always wrong because they are motivated not by love of truth but by greed of power, prestige, and popularity.
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The only way to acquire a better understanding of the world is to master the difficult art of thinking against oneself. It is not enough to say, “I could be wrong.” We should say instead, “As long as we think in terms of us and them, we can’t be right.”
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Until very recently most Americans believed Saddam was wrong and Bush right. If they are having second thoughts today it may be because their thinking follows not their prejudices but historic reality.
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Twenty years ago I wrote a brief essay in which I summed up my convictions and I thought I had reached the end of the line and I had nothing further to say. But on waking up next morning I felt the urge to add a final note to emphasize one of the points made in my final essay. Twenty years later, on waking up this morning, once more I feel the need to underline and expand in the full knowledge that what I say will change nothing, and history will continue to be made by people who are convinced they are the center of the universe, their god is the only true god, and their country is always right.
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Friday, November 25, 2005
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DIARY
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“He was brainwashed and traumatized,” I heard someone say on the radio this morning. One could say that to be educated, or to feel and think as a member of a specific racial, religious, ethnic or tribal group means to be brainwashed and traumatized to some degree.
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If to hate the many for the crimes of the few is racist, who among us can plead not guilty?
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I have discovered a wonderful new American detective-story writer, K.C. Constantine (not his real name). His plots advance on dialogue which is fast, furious, often witty, and always profoundly human – Chekhov with a touch of Dostoevsky.
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On the radio, Muti conducting Brahms’s 4th Symphony. In the first movement he emphasized not the charm but the monumental. I could not help thinking that this is what Brahms must have had in mind.
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Whenever Mother sees me writing, she says “Are you the director of a bank?”
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In Antranik Zaroukian’s NEW ARMENIA, NEW ARMENIANS, I read: “For six or seven centuries Armenia was only a dream in the heart of every Armenian. Dreams are nice if they lead you somewhere, nasty if they take you to a dead end…” He could have added, “…and nightmares when they come true.”
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Saturday, November 26, 2005
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PARALLELS
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In the paper this morning I read the following brief news item: “A 15-year old girl with a peanut allergy has died after being kissed by her boyfriend following his snack of peanut butter.”
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Socrates is right: Ignorance is the source of all evil, and to know is to remember. Didn’t the boyfriend know about her allergy? If he knew, did he forget?
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Ignorance may be the most innocent of all transgressions but in life it is sometimes the most severely punished.
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What could be more natural for an oppressed people than to want to live in a free and independent homeland? What was it that made us forget the lessons of history? Why is it that before we decided to rise against the Empire we failed to ask the following questions? What did the West do during the Bulgarian and Greek massacres? How many innocent lives did their angry editorials, speeches, and pamphlets save? They didn’t even bother sending Lord Byron. He volunteered. And how many lives did he save? He couldn’t even save his own.
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I see no difference between a regime that butchers writers and another that silences them. In both cases a unique perspective that may add to our understanding of the world is rejected and ignored.
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